Category Archives: England

International news

England, the World and the Premier League: Is This the Solution?

Posted on by

Everyone seems to have have their own idea of where England National Teams go wrong. The are always new accusations and FA directives to try and address an issue where the country with arguably the best league, and on balance, as good a player as the best of them, where is it all going wrong?

I don’t think it’s too many foreign players in the Premier League. The France team that won World Cup ’98, out of a 22 man squad, had only 9 based in the LFP, and they included Henry, Barthez, Trezeguet, Dugarry, Pires and Blanc who all moved on soon after. In fact, if we’re splitting hairs, you could argue some of their players weren’t even from France, Thuram for example.

It’s not Infrastructure as much as people think. Infrastructure has seen coutries like Belgium and USA crop up as emerging teams thanks to their investment in youth. We all know how the USA approaches sport, but not many people realise the potential that Belgium has with a team that is now developing with the likes of Marouaine Fellaini, Steven Defour, Romelu Lukaku, Axel Witsel, the future looks exciting for Belgian football, but will they ever challenge Spain or Brazil?

Continue reading →

England’s 2018 Fate Lies With The World’s Worst Footballing Nation

Posted on by

The time will soon be upon us when it will be discovered whether the England 2018 World Cup bid team (as well as their Russian, Spanish/Portuguese and Dutch/Belgian counterparts) will discover whether the last year or so of flesh-pressing, lobbying, rule-flaunting, power-brokering, politicking, back-slapping, bribery, petty sniping, short-sighted optimism and the abject hemorrhaging of several millions of pounds sterling will have been worth it all when the FIFA executive committee (ExCo) congregate to vote on the destination of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Zurich on Thursday afternoon.

The concerted English effort has suffered some sizeable blows on their way to this week’s gala ceremony, with covert journalism, flagrant Iberian/Qatari collusion and an intense global mistrust of the nation at large thought to have put paid to their hopes of actually succeeding on several occasions.

However, it looks like England 2018 may be in line to receive a voting lifeline from a fairly unlikely source – Papa New Guinea, the joint-worst footballing nation on the entire planet.

Vice-president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) David Chung, who hails from the aforementioned island nation ranked joint 203rd in the world (alongside San Marino, Anguilla, Montserrat and American Samoa), is travelling to Zurich in the hope of being sworn onto FIFA’s ExCo to replace temporarily deposed OFC president Reynald Temarii – who has been suspended from his post for a year after being caught out by the Sunday Times‘ undercover investigation into the innate corruption of the current World Cup bidding process.

If Temarii withdraws his appeal and stands down from the OFC, Chung (who is apparently deemed a ‘favourable voter’ from an English perspective) may be able to take the seat by right, meaning 23 (rather than just 22) people will be voting on the bids come Thursday.

View the Original article

England 2018 Plead With FIFA To ‘Ignore The Media’

Posted on by

In a development that reveals just how low they now deem themselves to have sunk in FIFA’s estimations (and how far back they have fallen back in terms of the impending vote), England 2018 have written to every voting member on the organisation’s executive committee (EC), pleading with them to not to punish the bid team for the actions of the nation’s independent media and press.

Being the self-serving preservationists as they are, FIFA have been understandably irked by the ongoing investigations being made into the corruption embedded within their corridors of power, carried out chiefly by covert staff of the Sunday Times newspaper (which resulted in the high-profile provisional suspension of EC members Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii last month).

According to reports in today’s broadsheets, the simpering letter declares England 2018‘s ‘solidarity and support’ for the way in which FIFA responded to the allegations levied at them by the Sunday Times, distances them from a forthcoming BBC Panorama exposé (that has tentatively been scheduled to air just three days before the vote in Zurich on December 2nd) and also refers to suspended duo Adamu and Temarii as ‘our (England’s) friends’.

The Guardian are also suggesting that bid insiders have informed them that the letter ‘represents a calculated risk’ by attempting to closely align England 2018 with a both a process and an organisation that are now teetering so precariously thanks to their recently highlighted vulnerabilities to exploitation.

View the Original article

Taylor backs Redknapp as next England boss

Posted on by

Fabio Capello has already confirmed he will retire in 2012 and there is a growing sentiment from both inside and outside the FA that the next England coach should be a local, as is increasingly the case in the top nations in international football.

Graham Taylor agrees with that notion and he sees Tottenham manager Redknapp as the best candidate of the English crop when it comes time to pick Capello’s successor.

“I have always believed that the job should go to an Englishman,” said Taylor, who led England for three years in the 1990s. “That’s not being disrespectful to Fabio or to Sven-Goran Eriksson. I just believe that the top countries in international football, players, staff, supporters pit their wits against other nations and the man in charge has to be from that country.”

Redknapp was touted as a possible successor to Capello this summer after he beat off competition from the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool to bring Champions League football to White Hart Lane for the first time in almost half a century.

The former Portsmouth boss, who has seen the likes of Gareth Bale, Tom Huddlestone and Michael Dawson flourish under his command, would be interested in the job while Liverpool’s Roy Hodgson and current Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce would stand a chance of getting the post if the FA decide to go English. Taylor, who was 46 when he took the England job, believes 63-year-old Redknapp has enough experience to make him the right man for the post.

“I’m sure if you asked everyone who should get it then they would go for Harry Redknapp right now,” Taylor said. “For me he is at the right age. If someone asked me to look back on my career I’d say I was too young to take that job. I think Harry would take it. He is an Englishman capable of doing the job.”

View the Original article

Capello confirms he’ll quit football after England

Posted on by

Fabio Capello, 64, qualified with ease for the 2010 World Cup but following England’s poor performances in South Africa is considered fortunate to still be in the job.

There were loud calls to sack the Italian, especially in some sections of the press that continue to attack him, but the Football Association opted to stick with the manager and he now is focused on his final task in football.

“At the moment I think of nothing else but Euro 2012 with England,” said Capello. “Unfortunately I am old, I no longer have the time; this will be my last experience on the bench.”

Capello, who is regarded as one of the greatest club managers in the game, has been coach of England since 2008 and extended his contract with the FA prior to the World Cup debacle.

The Italian guided AC Milan to four league titles and has won silverware at almost every club he has managed since. His last trophy came at Real Madrid in 2007 when he won the Spanish Primera Liga title.

View the Original article


 Powered by Max Banner Ads